McLaren CEO Zak Brown had long teased a "mega" signing for the team's fourth Indy 500 car after a third consecutive Kyle Larson Memorial Day Double attempt was ruled out.
Quite frankly, 2012 IndyCar champion and 2014 Indy 500 champion Ryan Hunter-Reay, who was arguably in position to win the race in a Dreyer & Reinbold Racing backup car in 2025 before his final pit stop of the afternoon, fits the bill, and it is he who is set to pilot the No. 31 Chevrolet this coming May.
But he wasn't Brown's first choice.
McLaren's first choice turned down Indy 500 chance
Brown's first choice was motorcycle legend Valentino Rossi, who is set to turn 47 years old in February and has no IndyCar experience.
The nine-time Grand Prix motorcycle racing world champion is nothing shy of a legend in his craft. But driving a motorcycle for the past three decades doesn't necessarily translate to being able to compete at a high level in the "Greatest Spectacle in Racing" with minimal-at-best preparation.
Rossi turned down the opportunity, opting to focus on the new career he's actually chosen for himself in the FIA World Endurance Championship, where he placed sixth in the standings as a rookie in 2024.
Brown stated that Rossi "recognized the level of commitment required and concluded he probably couldn't do WEC and Indy properly", and it's probably for the best, particularly after Larson's back-to-back attempts that left a lot to be desired.
McLaren avoid potential disaster
Anybody with any knowledge of racing knew Larson never had a puncher's chance to win the race in 2025, much less in 2024 (when he was laughably the outright betting favorite as a rookie with zero experience).
His 2024 race actually went better than 2025; he placed 18th after running in the top 10 before a late pit road speeding penalty.
In 2025, he crashed in testing, crashed in practice, and then took out himself and two others with a rookie mistake on a restart during the race – and then crashed (twice) in the Coca-Cola 600, completing the "Memorial Day Triple". He avoided disaster in 2024 when a similar restart mistake at Indy nearly collected everybody behind him.
But there was all kinds of hype surrounding Larson, and the misguided belief that he is every motor racing series' all-time best driver put together into one led his fanbase to believe that he was going to lap the field before the halfway mark both years. How did that turn out?
Bottom line, for as talented as the newly crowned two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion is, you don't just show up and win the Indy 500 because of your achievements in other racing series. Being a "big name" in another series means nothing at the "Racing Capital of the World", and if nothing else, it was certainly a humbling experience for him and his fanbase.
With Rossi, give him credit for realizing he isn't up for the challenge at this point, because it took that rejection for Brown to actually sign a driver who he readily admits "can win [the race]" in Hunter-Reay, rather than a driver who could potentially lead to similar questions about how much McLaren really care about being competitive in the biggest race in the world, versus how much they simply want to make international waves with a big-name signing.
I'm just surprised he didn't somehow find a way to blame Alex Palou for Rossi's rejection.